Now I don’t suffer with chipped tiles when drilling. I'll show you how easy it is to make a hole in the tile with a self-tapping screw.

Usually, craftsmen drill tiles with pobedit or diamond drills without much effort. If you drill on a tile with strong pressure, it is able to crack, split. But there are situations when there is no victorious drill of the required diameter at hand. Especially if you need to make a small hole in the tile, not exceeding 2-3 mm. What can be done in such a case?

Self-tapping to help you

You can take a screw. But it will not be an ordinary screw with a sharp screw-in end, with which we are used to fastening wooden parts. Our self-tapping screw will be with a drill at the end. These are used, as a rule, for screwing into metal. To drill tiles, you will need a screw with a length of 2.5 cm or more.

These screws are usually made from hard alloy steels. And if they are able to cope with metal, then ceramics, even if fired, are even more “too tough” for them.

So, first we clamp the self-tapping screw in a vise and cut off his hat with a hacksaw. We insert the finished “drill” into the drill chuck. The drill is ready to work, you can drill. Let me remind you once again: you should not lean on the drill with all your weight, otherwise the tile may crack.

Attention: in some electric drills, the lips of the chuck do not close tightly when closed. And in this position, the screw clamped in the chuck will probably scroll. In this case, I advise you to wind the wire on that part of the screw that is clamped in the chuck. Then the diameter of our impromptu drill will increase.

And one more important point. In the process of working with an electric drill, the “drill” heats up from friction. And, when heated, it simply stops drilling. The same happens with conventional and with Pobedite drills, and on any material. Therefore, when drilling a hole, it is necessary to cool the drill by wetting it with water. When drilling into tiles, have a cup of water ready to dip the tip of the drill bit into to cool.

What if you need a specific hole diameter and don't have a drill with that diameter at hand?

Have you ever noticed that if there is a thin hole, then reaming it with a larger diameter drill is much easier than immediately drilling with a large drill on a smooth surface? In this situation, self-tapping screws will also help you. Drill holes of small diameter first, and then change the drill to the desired diameter and continue drilling. Just do not forget to wet the drill with cold water, and you will definitely succeed.

In the same way, you can drill a red or silicate brick.

If you need to hang a shelf, or attach a lamp to the wall, and the wall is brick, then you can also first drill a thin one with a self-tapping screw hole, and then pick up a drill of the required diameter, for example, 6 or 8 mm for the dowel, and expand this hole to the desired size.

Attention: if the tile has to be drilled directly on the wall, it must be punched, otherwise the drill will slide off the surface of the tile. It is better to do this at low speeds of the drill.